Justyn Oliver & Mekha George

Co-VP Communications Candidates

Justyn is a third-year Civil Engineering Co-op student with immense experience in media relations and communications. He has served as the Director of Photography and Media in the past two years, assisting the VP of Communications in ensuring every event has a photographer/videographer to document them. He developed a tracking spreadsheet to keep photographers/videographers alert for upcoming events, alongside borrow/return forms for ESS camera equipment. Outside of the ESS, he takes professional photos under the guise of “justynb3n.” 

Mekha is a third-year Computer Engineering Co-op Student with significant experience in marketing and outreach. She has been with the ESS for two years and has undertaken various roles such as website coordinator, marketing coordinator, and EnggLink coordinator. Recently, she was promoted to the Director of Outreach position. Her responsibilities included updating the ESS website, maintaining the ESS poster boards, and managing the weekly EnggLink.Thus, she has gained a well-rounded experience in communication. Outside of the ESS, Mekha is a Girl Guide leader, and she enjoys baking and gardening.

Check out our full platform here!

Platform

Improving Advertisements 

Description

Over the past few months, the ESS has utilized photos and graphic design posts on Instagram to engage their audiences with upcoming and completed events. Despite using said mediums, we believe the ESS can utilize Instagram to its fullest potential in hopes of attracting more students/individuals to events and to the organization as a whole. Our action items are written as follows. 

Action Items

Create engaging reels - The messages that the ESS sends out to students need to be captivating in order to resonate with them. This can be achieved by: 

• Using different hooks for every introduction. The message will be customized for different audiences, so each introduction feels fresh and relevant to the viewer. 

• Incorporating animations and transitions to make the reels visually appealing and dynamic. This will keep the viewer's attention and make sure that the message is heard. 

• Using varying color grading depending on the theme of the reel. This will help create a cohesive aesthetic that reinforces our message and makes it more memorable. 

Highlight each ESS portfolio - Instagram is often utilized to advertise new and positions in the ESS. However, every post isn’t highlighted, which is detrimental to recruitment. We can remedy this by: 

• Giving every portfolio “screen time” and highlighting every role. Not only will this aid in recruitment as people will know exactly what they are volunteering for, but general knowledge of the ESS will also increase as the student body will know the functions of each part. 

End goal

The end goal is clear - we want to attract and engage more students with the ESS. Increasing recruitment brings forth a wide array of students possessing varying skills and talents.

Streamlining Graphics Design/Outreach Request

Description

The Graphics Design form is considered an invaluable asset to the ESS in general, being able to relay potential requests for events or workshops at their fingertips. Despite working as intended, we are eager to provide potential improvements in hopes of guiding users when utilizing the form. Here are the action items as follows. 

Action Items

Providing colour palettes -  on the current Graphics Design form, there is a section for providing colours, but it is hard to be exact and specific about said colours. This can be remedied by:

• Providing images of specific colour palettes. Not only will this allow the design team to know the exact colours, but it also gives the submitter an idea of how the colours work together. 

Providing poster templates - on the current Graphics Design form, there is a section describing design elements, but no space to specify an overall look. This can be remedied by:

• Providing poster templates utilizing Canva. This increases the turnaround speed for the requests as the designers are more aware of the submitter’s wants and ideas. 

Providing specific sections in Outreach form - Adding general updates to the outreach form to better serve the following divisions (more details in next pages) 

• Media

• Online Outreach

End goal

Following said action items helped in streamlining the graphics design request, making it a lot more user-friendly and efficient

Photography & Videography

Description

Biases aside, photography and videography have been well coordinated with documentation of events over the past few months, as stated best by their director in question. That being said, with every platform improvement listed, we believe this division can improve in numerous ways in hopes it can benefit both the audience and the volunteers equally. Action items, take it away!  

Action Items

Transform Director of Media Role 

• If there are Co-Directors of Media, then divide the role into Director of Photography and Director of Videography. This helps to reduce the workload, and allows for each director to specialize and master their craft. 

Reduction in Quantity of Photos Reduce 

• the number of photos per event from 20 to 10-15. This allows for faster turnaround time in releasing the final shots, and reduces the workload on the volunteers. 

Adding a media section to the Outreach Form 

• Adding an option for the quantity of photographers needed 

• Adding an option for the quantity of videographers 

• Specifying how long media volunteers must be present

End goal

This revelation will reduce the workload of the media team, allowing the directors/coordinators to hone their skills more deeply and submit their work on time, vastly increasing work turnout.

Improving Online Outreach 

Description

Despite the VP of Communications being heralded as the marketing team, Instagram is the only platform we have utilized over the decade. Regardless of Instagram’s popularity, we believe we can branch out of that platform to increase ESS’s outreach with the students. Let the action items speak for itself. 

Action Items

Utilize different platforms - the ESS mainly uses Instagram as its marketing base. This allows us to only reach one demographic. We can expand our reach by branching out to: 

• LinkedIn - This allows us to reach companies and industry professionals, who are valuable connections for future events (ex. Career Fair, Professional Development Sessions, Panels) 

• YouTube - The reels that are posted on Instagram can also be posted on YouTube to reach a wider audience, and we can also post the GEER week movies for those who haven’t seen them or for rewatch-ability. With this place in mind, an increase in connections can be made among individuals, followed by further increase in ESS event awareness and attendance, hence resulting in increased recruitment. 

New Role - Social Media Coordinator 

• Create a new role coordinator position under Outreach 

• This role will draft posts for both Instagram and LinkedIn based on the requests they receive through the Outreach Form 

• If this position is unfilled, the responsibility will fall back on the VPs. 

Updating channels of advertisements section of the Outreach Form 

• Adding the new social media platforms as options on the Outreach Form. 

End goal

With this place in mind, an increase in connections can be made among individuals, followed by further increase in ESS event awareness and attendance, hence resulting in increased recruitment.